If using an unsupported desktop that does not contain an icon or menu item for Control Panel, simply type pc-controlpanel from a shell prompt as an alternate method to launch the Control Panel. An open Control Panel window can be seen in Figure 8.a.

The search box in the upper right will help to find the proper control panel item to use if you know what you would like to configure but are uncertain which one would handle it.

If an icon includes a yellow exclamation mark, you will need to input your password in order to access that configuration utility.

Your user account must be a member of the wheel group in order to use the superuser password, or view the configuration utilities that require superuser access in the Control Panel. By default, the first user account that you create is made a member of the wheel group. You can log in as that user and use User Manager to add other accounts to this group.

Desktop Selector

Control Panel includes a desktop selector drop-down menu which allows you to view the configuration utilities from KDE3 and 4, GNOME2, XFCE3 and 4, or LXDE. Figure 8.b shows the desktop selector menu in use. In this example, the user is currently logged into the LXDE desktop but they have chosen to view the GNOME utilities. The icon will relate to the control panel view, while "(current)" will be beside the desktop that is presently active. If any other desktop were active, then "Unsupported DE (current)" would be shown. The icon used for unsupported desktops, when at least one is installed, looks like a window with a red 'X' on the lower left corner.

Figure 8.b: Desktop Selector Menu

Switching between the icons in the selector changes the icons displayed within the control panel window to match those used in that desktop. If "All" is set by the desktop selector, you will see every utility that is available, depending upon which desktops are currently installed. You can change which desktops are installed by using System Manager.

This section demonstrates how to use the following utilities which are found in the Control Panel of a PC-BSD® system, regardless of the desktop that is installed: